Food Security

Only 20% of actual coffee is extracted from beans to produce coffee in its beverage form, leaving the remaining 80% (six million tons annually) deemed as spent coffee grounds (SCG) to be disposed or used in landfills or as non-food product components to make fertilisers, furniture, deodorisers or skin care products. A technology was created to counteract SCG wastage and valorise it for human consumption. This particular invention comprises of methodologies to create two types of ingredients using leftover SCG - oil-grind and water-grind processed SCG. A simple, reproducible method of conching is employed to convert leftover SCG into smooth pastes, where specific conching parameters help refine the SCG to an acceptable particle size, eliminating grittiness in numerous valorised products similar to SCG. The product utilises common ingredients like oil and water to conche SCG with improved taste and textural properties. The shelf stability and nutritional composition (including caffeine) of the ingredients were also validated to ensure the food possessed good sensorial properties and are scale up ready. This technology increases SCG’s potential use as a versatile ingredient in different food applications. The technology provider is seeking off-takers from food manufacturers, food services industry, companies interested to valorise side streams to turn SCG into edible compounds.

Aquaculture is one of the most important sources of protein and nutrition for the rising global population. Water quality related issues and diseases caused by viruses and bacteria are the biggest challenges that the aquaculture industry faces today. Pathogen infestation can cause serious diseases and loss of fishes, shrimps, and mollusks. This impacts the overall yield, resulting in huge economic losses. Current pathogen detection methods are slow, imprecise and do not identify unknown pathogens. These methods neither diagnose mystery ailments nor provide any visibility into the very foundation of health in any aquatic environment: the marine microbiome. Effective management of waterborne diseases and water quality requires a holistic understanding of the microbial consortia in the aquatic setting. This technology provides next-generation metagenomic insights in the microbiome and further data-driven solutions provided with the company’s proprietary AI algorithms. The technology provider is seeking partnerships with aquaculture players who are interested in applying microbiome analytics to their current applications for decreasing operating expenses and increasing yield.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), invasive insects cost the global economy around US$ 70 billion each year. Rising temperatures, longer seasons, and changing weather patterns are creating more favourable conditions for insects to thrive in many areas, leading to increased infestations in crops. Traditional pest management methods in food crops, such as frequent spraying of insecticides and repeated inspection, are labour intensive and can have negative environmental impacts. This technology offers a promising solution to these challenges. It simultaneously reduces the particle size of insecticides and modifies their surface properties, which increases foliar uptake by several folds. Once absorbed by leaves, the insecticides are no longer prone to wash off or environmental degradation, resulting in a substantially longer residual treatment effect and a reduction in usage volumes and reapplication frequencies of the insecticides. This technology is designed as a ready-to-use adjuvant that works with commercialised insecticides. Growers can independently and safely nano encapsulate the insecticides with basic mixing equipment and a simple, one-step mixing process.

Root rot diseases in food crops are devastating diseases currently without solution. Examples of such diseases are the Basal Stem Rot in oil palms, Fusarium Wilt in bananas, and Phytophthora Root Rot in citrus.  While fungicides have in vitro efficacy, most do not possess phloem mobility and therefore cannot reach the roots to effect treatment. Thus, despite widespread usage of fungicides, root rot diseases are still inadequately treated or are not treated at all. This Nano Delivery Technology imparts phloem mobility to fungicides, allowing them to reach the roots from the application site to treat and protect the crops. The technology is designed as a ready-to-use adjuvant that works with commercialised fungicides. Growers can independently and safely nano encapsulate the fungicides with basic mixing equipment and a simple, one-step mixing process. This technology is patent-pending and ready to market.

Routine monitoring of water quality is paramount in aquaculture operations such as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) to ensure high productivity and high produce quality. Currently, the monitoring of microbial content in water is mostly based on visualisation of water turbidity and observation of fish behaviour. Some RAS operations use the bacterial culture-based approach for surveillance of microbial quality of water. However, this approach is laborious, requires microbiological testing expertise, and test results are obtainable only after a long incubation period.  Bioluminescent ATP assay is another method that can be used to monitor microbial content. However, it requires lysis of bacteria to release the ATP contained inside the bacteria, and enzymatic reaction of luciferase on ATP to produce the luminescence. While it provides results within a short time, the cost of luciferase, lysis reagents and luminometer could be prohibitive for routine and extensive testing of water samples.   The technology owner has developed a non-enzymatic test reagent which gives a rapid colour change in the presence of Gram-negative bacteria. The technology owner is keen to collaborate with manufacturers of analytical instruments and diagnostic test kits, as well as partners from the aquaculture, biomedical and water quality control industries, to further develop and commercialise this technology.

One-fifth of all local and imported food in Singapore and about 15% of all food globally is spoiled during the supply chain due to inadequate food transport facilities. To overcome this, the startup offers a patented technology in the form of a hardware device that emits a magnetic interference field. It can be used throughout the supply chain starting immediately after harvest and all the way to storage and display. In particular, this technology has great potential to be applied during the food transportation when the chance of spoilage is highest due to reasons such as overripening caused by supply chain delays. The startup is looking to collaborate with food logistics and storage companies, as well as retailers, to integrate their solution.

Asia accounts for approximately 70% of the world’s seafood consumption, around 69.6 million metric tons. This is more than twice the total amount consumed by the rest of the world.* Commercially, about 30% of the seafood is not consumed, from bones to offals, to skin/shell/scales. These food loss and waste potentially impose environmental and socioeconomic issues.  The technology provider has developed a green chemical process converting seafood sidestreams into food products that are not only high value but also nutritious, addressing Singapore’s demand to increase production of nutrient dense foods. In addition, this method is efficient and cost effective as it requires basic equipment. The technology provider is looking for R&D collaborators and for test-bedding especially with industries who are producing aquaculture food with high nutritional value and interested to utilise their sidestreams more sustainably. * FAO 2018

Feed cost generally accounts for 60% to 70% of the total production costs in an intensive shrimp aquaculture system. Fishmeal, which is often the main ingredient of shrimp feed, is one of the reasons for the high cost. It is also unsustainable to use fishmeal as it is derived from fish, contributing to the depletion of other fish species on a global scale. The technology offer is an alternative protein source in shrimp feed that uses okara, a nutrient-dense side stream from soy milk and bean curd production. Direct application of unprocessed okara into shrimp feed may work, however, due to the presence of anti-nutrients, the absorption of protein and amino acids from the okara may be limited. The technology developer has formulated a shrimp feed with an optimum amount of processing to increase the digestibility and enhance the nutritional properties and at the same time lowering the cost of shrimp feed by up to 50%. Currently, the developer has developed shrimp feed suitable for L. vannamei shrimp species with complete or partial replacement of animal protein which is fish meal. The technology is available for IP licensing and IP acquisition as well as R&D collaboration with industrial partners who are keen to adopt the solution. 

One-third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted. At the same time, millions of people are hungry and unable to afford a healthy diet. Having said that, food loss and waste could potentially impose food security and impact the world with nutrition, socioeconomic, and environmental issues.  This technology offer is a process technology that provides an efficient and environmentally friendly approach to utilise agri-food side stream and convert it to a valuable, high protein biomass. The technology develops precision approaches, i.e., the proper treatment methods for food sidestreams, specific separation means for target ingredients, suitable strains for protein production, and optimized operational conditions for the fermentation process. The process also utilises the inexpensive agri-food side stream as the novel feedstock for protein fermentation. The technology is available for R&D collaboration and test bedding, with partners that are interested in valorisation of food sidestreams to value-added edible protein. The technology owner is also keen to license and commercialize this technology.